A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
Buy for $27.11
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Eimear McBride
-
By:
-
Eimear McBride
About this listen
Winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2014
Winner of The Desmond Elliot Prize 2014
Winner of the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize 2013
Winner of the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction 2014
Shortlisted for the inaugural Folio Prize 2014
A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing is an unforgettable novel from a major new literary talent. Eimear McBride's award-winning debut novel tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. It is a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings, and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist.
The author's spellbinding reading illuminates every nuance of the text with feeling and sympathy. The listener enters the narrator's head, experiencing her world at first hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation.
©2013 Eimear McBride (P)2014 Faber AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,004
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,756
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,742
Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: She is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good - her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
There’s far too much real pain and sadness in the world to spend any time listening to this tale of woe
- By SuperShopper on 02-18-21
By: Douglas Stuart
-
The Lesser Bohemians
- A Novel
- By: Eimear McBride
- Narrated by: Eimear McBride
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
One night an 18-year-old Irish girl, recently arrived in London to attend drama school, meets an older man - a well-regarded actor in his own right. While she is naive and thrilled by life in the big city, he is haunted by more than a few demons, and the clamorous relationship that ensues risks undoing them both.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Took a little while to get hooked
- By Pictorama on 11-23-16
By: Eimear McBride
-
Beautiful World, Where Are You
- A Novel
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,578
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,192
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,194
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Must listen!
- By cathy hunt on 09-09-21
By: Sally Rooney
-
Lapvona
- A Novel
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 677
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 571
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 571
Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
uncomfortable
- By Stetson on 07-04-22
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,978
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,763
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,759
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes "interesting" - the last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed, and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is a story of inaction with enormous consequences.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Like the writing, not the audio issues
- By Criticalthinker on 12-31-18
By: Anna Burns
-
Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,547
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,349
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,337
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,004
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,756
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,742
Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: She is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good - her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
There’s far too much real pain and sadness in the world to spend any time listening to this tale of woe
- By SuperShopper on 02-18-21
By: Douglas Stuart
-
The Lesser Bohemians
- A Novel
- By: Eimear McBride
- Narrated by: Eimear McBride
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
One night an 18-year-old Irish girl, recently arrived in London to attend drama school, meets an older man - a well-regarded actor in his own right. While she is naive and thrilled by life in the big city, he is haunted by more than a few demons, and the clamorous relationship that ensues risks undoing them both.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Took a little while to get hooked
- By Pictorama on 11-23-16
By: Eimear McBride
-
Beautiful World, Where Are You
- A Novel
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,578
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,192
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,194
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Must listen!
- By cathy hunt on 09-09-21
By: Sally Rooney
-
Lapvona
- A Novel
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 677
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 571
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 571
Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
uncomfortable
- By Stetson on 07-04-22
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
Milkman
- By: Anna Burns
- Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,978
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,763
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,759
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes "interesting" - the last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed, and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is a story of inaction with enormous consequences.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Like the writing, not the audio issues
- By Criticalthinker on 12-31-18
By: Anna Burns
-
Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,547
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,349
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,337
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Trespasses
- A Novel
- By: Louise Kennedy
- Narrated by: Brid Brennan
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 241
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 203
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family’s pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment—Michael is not only Protestant but older and married—Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Exquisite
- By Suzanna on 11-10-22
By: Louise Kennedy
-
Klara and the Sun
- A Novel
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: Sura Siu
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 10,066
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,617
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 8,584
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: What does it mean to love?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well Worth Having Waited For!
- By otherdeb on 03-04-21
By: Kazuo Ishiguro
-
A Prayer for Owen Meany
- By: John Irving
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 27 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,772
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,959
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,947
Of all of John Irving's books, this is the one that lends itself best to audio. In print, Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capital letters; for this production, Irving himself selected Joe Barrett to deliver Meany's difficult voice as intended. In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys – best friends – are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary and terrifying.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding
- By Alan on 03-28-11
By: John Irving
-
My Husband
- A Novel
- By: Maud Ventura, Emma Ramadan - translator
- Narrated by: Kiiri Sandy
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 160
At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband, whose wealthy background allows her to transcend her own social class. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Mind numbingly boring and shallow.
- By GAYANE TOROSYAN on 10-27-23
By: Maud Ventura, and others
-
Young Mungo
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Chris Reilly
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 686
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 601
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 600
Born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Their environment is a hyper-masculine and sectarian one, for gangs of young men and the violence they might dole out dominate the Glaswegian estate where they live. And yet against all odds Mungo and James become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Suffering Sappho!
- By Richard Stewart on 04-12-22
By: Douglas Stuart
-
Walk the Blue Fields
- Stories
- By: Claire Keegan
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly, Aoife McMahon, Aidan Quinn
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Claire Keegan continues her outstanding work with this new collection of quietly wrenching stories of despair and desire in modern-day Ireland. A writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Böll's old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder whose ulterior motives emerge as the night progresses. A priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage—and battles his memories of a love affair that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life. And a man seeks solace at the bottom of a bottle as he mourns both his empty life and his lost love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just Superb.
- By Deborah on 12-09-22
By: Claire Keegan
-
The Rachel Incident
- A Novel
- By: Caroline O'Donoghue
- Narrated by: Tara Flynn
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 501
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 457
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 457
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best narration
- By LG on 01-12-24
-
Angela's Ashes
- By: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Narrated by: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,817
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7,844
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,839
Why we think it’s a great listen: There’s no gentle way to put this – Frank McCourt’s performance of Angela’s Ashes is just better than the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Frank McCourt shares his sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking story of growing up poor, Irish, and Catholic in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A classic book *and* a classic audiobook
- By Karen on 01-30-03
By: Frank McCourt, and others
-
The Butcher Boy
- By: Patrick Mccabe
- Narrated by: Patrick Mccabe
- Length: 3 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Welcome to the mind of Francie Brady. Just what Francie did to Mrs. Nugent is the final, terrifying act of a young boy at the end of a relentless descent into a world of scorn and fear, brought to unforgettably vivid life in this tour-de-force performance by author Patrick McCabe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Genius in every way
- By NYC Amazon buyer on 07-20-16
By: Patrick Mccabe
-
A Certain Hunger
- By: Chelsea G. Summers
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,127
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 990
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 986
Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller. Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy. Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Ugh.
- By Kimberly on 02-03-20
-
The Memory Police
- A Novel
- By: Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder - translator
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 885
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 759
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 757
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses - until things become much more serious. Most of the island's inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Calm, Quiet Dystopian
- By Booky Nooky on 12-13-19
By: Yoko Ogawa, and others
-
To Paradise
- A Novel
- By: Hanya Yanagihara
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Catherine Ho, BD Wong, and others
- Length: 28 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,074
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 959
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 962
To Paradise is a fin de siècle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love—partners, lovers, children, friends, family, and even our fellow citizens—and the pain that ensues when we cannot.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fabulous
- By Patty66215 on 01-15-22
By: Hanya Yanagihara
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Disappearing Act
- A Host of Other Characters in 16 Short Stories
- By: Robert Sheehan
- Narrated by: Robert Sheehan
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
In his debut collection of short stories, Robert Sheehan disappears into characters, challenging the complacencies of everyday experience, often from entirely unexpected angles. Informed by the author’s peripatetic life, Disappearing Act reflects on the absurdity of human behaviour. Sheehan delves deep into his characters’ streams of self-talk and self-imposed delusions, exploring the dark impulses that lurk below the shiny surfaces of many outwardly normal lives.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
as strange as he is
- By DEKEY on 04-08-24
By: Robert Sheehan
-
The Stopped Heart
- A Novel
- By: Julie Myerson
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Lucinda Clare
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn't been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It's idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not What I expected.
- By Heather on 04-26-16
By: Julie Myerson
-
Trumpet
- By: Jackie Kay
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret. Unbeknown to all but his wife Millie, Joss was a woman living as a man. The discovery is most devastating for their adopted son, Colman, whose bewildered fury brings the press to the doorstep and sends his grieving mother to the sanctuary of a remote Scottish village. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, Trumpet by Jackie Kay is a starkly beautiful modern classic about the lengths to which people will go for love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful and True
- By Colin on 05-24-17
By: Jackie Kay
-
How Green Was My Valley
- By: Richard Llewellyn
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 660
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 576
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 575
How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn’s best-selling - and timeless - classic, as well as the basis of a beloved film. As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn’s characters fight, love, laugh, and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people. Richard Llewellyn (1906–1983), a Welsh novelist, was born in Hendon, England, in the county of Middlesex.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The rhythm of life... the pattern of words...
- By Jan on 04-16-13
-
Brick Lane
- By: Monica Ali
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A truly wonderful book!
- By A M on 11-24-03
By: Monica Ali
-
The New Moon's Arms
- By: Nalo Hopkinson
- Narrated by: Gin Hammond
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 398
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 352
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 353
Calamity is confronting two big transitions: the death of her beloved father and the beginning of menopause, a physical shift that has rekindled her gift for finding lost things. Suddenly, she is getting hot flashes that seem to forge objects out of thin air, most notably a four-year old boy. As Calamity takes the child into her care, she discovers that all is not as it seems. Then, Calamity must reawaken to the mysteries surrounding her own childhood and the early disappearance of her mother.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a joy
- By newmoon on 07-05-19
By: Nalo Hopkinson
-
Disappearing Act
- A Host of Other Characters in 16 Short Stories
- By: Robert Sheehan
- Narrated by: Robert Sheehan
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
In his debut collection of short stories, Robert Sheehan disappears into characters, challenging the complacencies of everyday experience, often from entirely unexpected angles. Informed by the author’s peripatetic life, Disappearing Act reflects on the absurdity of human behaviour. Sheehan delves deep into his characters’ streams of self-talk and self-imposed delusions, exploring the dark impulses that lurk below the shiny surfaces of many outwardly normal lives.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
as strange as he is
- By DEKEY on 04-08-24
By: Robert Sheehan
-
The Stopped Heart
- A Novel
- By: Julie Myerson
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Lucinda Clare
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn't been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It's idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not What I expected.
- By Heather on 04-26-16
By: Julie Myerson
-
Trumpet
- By: Jackie Kay
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret. Unbeknown to all but his wife Millie, Joss was a woman living as a man. The discovery is most devastating for their adopted son, Colman, whose bewildered fury brings the press to the doorstep and sends his grieving mother to the sanctuary of a remote Scottish village. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, Trumpet by Jackie Kay is a starkly beautiful modern classic about the lengths to which people will go for love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful and True
- By Colin on 05-24-17
By: Jackie Kay
-
How Green Was My Valley
- By: Richard Llewellyn
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 660
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 576
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 575
How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn’s best-selling - and timeless - classic, as well as the basis of a beloved film. As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn’s characters fight, love, laugh, and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people. Richard Llewellyn (1906–1983), a Welsh novelist, was born in Hendon, England, in the county of Middlesex.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The rhythm of life... the pattern of words...
- By Jan on 04-16-13
-
Brick Lane
- By: Monica Ali
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A truly wonderful book!
- By A M on 11-24-03
By: Monica Ali
-
The New Moon's Arms
- By: Nalo Hopkinson
- Narrated by: Gin Hammond
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 398
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 352
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 353
Calamity is confronting two big transitions: the death of her beloved father and the beginning of menopause, a physical shift that has rekindled her gift for finding lost things. Suddenly, she is getting hot flashes that seem to forge objects out of thin air, most notably a four-year old boy. As Calamity takes the child into her care, she discovers that all is not as it seems. Then, Calamity must reawaken to the mysteries surrounding her own childhood and the early disappearance of her mother.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What a joy
- By newmoon on 07-05-19
By: Nalo Hopkinson
-
The Teller of Secrets
- A Novel
- By: Bisi Adjapon
- Narrated by: Anniwaa Buachie
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial "secret keeper" of her family, as tight-lipped about her father's adultery as she is about her half-sisters' sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women's secrets and men's secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Hmm took a while to grasp
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 06-25-24
By: Bisi Adjapon
-
The Other Side of Paradise
- A Memoir
- By: Staceyann Chin
- Narrated by: Staceyann Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 194
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 179
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 176
Stacyann Chin has appeared on television and radio, including The Oprah Winfrey Show , CNN, and PBS, discussing issues of race and sexuality. But it is her extraordinary voice that launched her career as a performer, poet, and activist. Here, she shares her unforgettable story of triumph against all odds in this brave and fiercely candid memoir.
No one knew Staceyann's mother was pregnant until a dangerously small baby was born on the floor of her grandmother's house in Jamaica, on Christmas Day.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible life, incredible performer
- By RyRy on 10-21-19
By: Staceyann Chin
-
The Dead Fathers Club
- By: Matt Haig
- Narrated by: Andrew Dennis
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
Eleven-year-old Philip Noble has a big problem. His dad has appeared to him as a member of the Dead Fathers Club, a club for "ghost dads" whose murders are unavenged. His father's road accident, it turns out, was no accident at all. Uncle Alan is responsible for his dad's death, and if Philip doesn't succeed in killing his uncle just before his dad's birthday, just 10 weeks away, his dad's spirit will never rest.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Hamlet Only New
- By Annette on 05-07-08
By: Matt Haig
-
Rapture of Canaan
- By: Sheri Reynolds
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Novelist Sheri Reynolds weaves lyrical prose and folksy dialogue into her spellbinding tales. The Rapture of Canaan, a New York Times best-seller, is the moving story of a teenaged girl clashing with her harshly controlled world. Growing up in a closed religious community deep in the rural South, 15-year-old Ninah Huff painstakingly and obediently follows her church’s many rules—she knows that public humiliation follows the smallest transgression
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Really good story
- By mctoria on 08-15-24
By: Sheri Reynolds
-
Bone
- By: Yrsa Daley-Ward, Kiese Laymon - foreword
- Narrated by: Yrsa Daley-Ward, Kiese Laymon
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
From navigating the oft competing worlds of religion and desire, to balancing society’s expectations with the raw experience of being a woman in the world; from detailing the experiences of growing up as a first generation black British woman, to working through situations of dependence and abuse; from finding solace in the echoing caverns of depression and loss, to exploring the vulnerability and redemption in falling in love, each of the raw and immediate poems in Daley-Ward’s bone resonates to the core of what it means to be human.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Visceral,blood hot, thrilling poetry-prose
- By Pam on 12-28-22
By: Yrsa Daley-Ward, and others
-
The Star Side of Bird Hill
- By: Naomi Jackson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 82
Two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados, after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live, for the summer of 1989, with their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My absolute favorite book of all time
- By Eme on 07-16-15
By: Naomi Jackson
-
The Things We Never Said
- By: Susan Elliot Wright
- Narrated by: Kate Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 161
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 144
In 1964, Maggie wakes to find herself in a mental asylum, with no idea who she is or how she got there. Remnants of memories swirl in her mind - a familiar song, a storm, a moment of violence. Slowly, she begins to piece together the past and the events which brought her to this point.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointing
- By Anonymous User on 01-18-22
-
The Darkest Secret
- A Novel
- By: Alex Marwood
- Narrated by: Beverley A. Crick
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,302
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,171
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,174
Real estate mogul Sean Jackson is throwing himself a splashy 50th birthday party, but trouble starts almost immediately: His ex-wife has sent his teenage daughters to the party without telling him; his current wife has fired the nanny; and he's finding it difficult to sneak away to his mistress. Then something truly terrible happens: one of his three-year-old twins goes missing. No trace of her is ever found. The attendees of the party, nicknamed the Jackson Associates by the press, become infamous overnight.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow
- By Christina on 09-14-16
By: Alex Marwood
-
Everything Under
- A Novel
- By: Daisy Johnson
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 75
The dictionary doesn’t contain every word. Gretel, a lexicographer by trade, knows this better than most. She grew up on a houseboat with her mother, wandering the canals of Oxford and speaking a private language of their own invention. Her mother disappeared when Gretel was a teen, abandoning her to foster care, and Gretel has tried to move on, spending her days updating dictionary entries. One phone call from her mother is all it takes for the past to come rushing back. To find her, Gretel will have to recover buried memories of her final, fateful winter on the canals.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A brilliantly understated classic
- By Jeff Lacy on 10-29-19
By: Daisy Johnson
-
Rush Home Road
- By: Lori Lansens
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 253
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 191
When a 70-year-old woman finds a five-year-old girl abandoned on her doorstep, she is thrust into a sorrowful past that can only be conquered with the help of the girl who opened her memory - the very girl she is trying to save. This first novel, according to author Jacquelyn Mitchard, is one of "exquisite power, honesty, and conviction...quite nearly without flaws."
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
filthy language and violent content
- By Anna on 12-16-11
By: Lori Lansens
-
Long Lankin
- By: Lindsey Barraclough
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
When Cora and her little sister, Mimi, are sent to stay with their great-aunt in the isolated village of Bryers Guerdon, they receive a less than warm welcome and are desperate to go back to London. But Auntie Ida’s life was devastated the last time two young girls were at Guerdon Hall, and now her nieces’ arrival has reawakened an evil that has lain in wait for years. A haunting voice in an empty room; a strange, scarred man lurking in the graveyard; mysterious words scrawled on the walls of the abandoned church ... all point to a horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its grip for centuries.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
AMAZING!!!
- By Sharron on 09-06-14
-
The Hollow Ground
- By: Natalie S. Harnett
- Narrated by: Luci Christian
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 534
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 469
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 472
The underground mine fires ravaging Pennsylvania coal country have forced 11-year-old Brigid Howley and her family to seek refuge with her estranged grandparents, the formidable Gram and the black lung-stricken Gramp. Tragedy is no stranger to the Howleys, a proud Irish-American clan who takes strange pleasure in the "curse" laid upon them generations earlier by a priest who ran afoul of the Molly Maguires. The weight of this legacy rests heavily on a new generation, when Brigid, already struggling to keep her family together, makes a grisly discovery in a long-abandoned bootleg mine shaft.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Disfunction makes a good read
- By NHull on 05-30-14